Cloud and the Slime
by Hyaku
Summary: The true events of the ending of Final Fantasy VII


Final Fantasy's Final Fantasies Presents:

Final Fantasy VII: Cloud and the Slime - In 5 Acts

ACT I:

Tifa was very worried, but she tried to keep Cloud from noticing. She just kept his head cool and his bandages clean and hoped for the best.

It had been about one day since she'd received a frantic message on her phone from Cloud, his voice horrified and babbling about something, but the connection was cut off before she could figure anything out. But she found him, unconscious in the woods around Mideel, and brought him back to Cosmo Canyon, where they had been staying for awhile.

Cloud moaned.

"Cloud! Are you all right?"

Cloud fluttered his eyes. "It...it was...just terrible...never seen anything like it..." and then he was out again.

Tifa sat back and held her hands in her lap, biting her lower lip.

ACT II:

"He said it was around here somewhere," Barret said. He, Tifa, RedXIII, Yuffie, and Cid were in the woods around Mideel, searching for the mysterious creature Cloud had spoken of.

"Well, shit! How're we supposed to find somethin' we don't even know what it looks like?" Cid said angrily.

Tifa sighed. "We'll just have to look, that's all. Goodness knows we've fought everything on this planet already. Well, all of us except Yuffie. She lost to that Tonberry that one time."

Yuffie rolled her eyes but said nothing, fingering the long scar under her shirt where the tonberry had stabbed her.

RedXIII suddenly shushed everyone. "Over there," he said in a quiet voice. "I can smell it...something different, unnatural..."

Everyone's tension was broken by a shriek to their left. They all ran through the trees and bushes towards the sound, and soon they found Reno, out like a light and face-down in the dirt.

Tifa ran to him and when she looked him over she recognized the same sorts of bizarre marks on him as she had on Cloud. She looked up with a stricken face to her companions.

"Do you think it's Sephiroth's doing?" Yuffie asked.

Tifa shook her head. "I don't know...but it might be..."

ACT III:

Sephiroth was cooking his dinner, and he still could not shake the irky feeling he had felt since waking up that morning. The only time he had ever felt that strange prickle was when that fool Aerith had tried to summon Holy to stop all of his Plans, but he took care of that right enough, and there was no one else he could think of that could pull off a stunt like that.

He set his spatula down and looked out the little glass window in his cave at the top, barren land of the North Crater. Then he felt it again. What _was_ it?

Knowing for certain something was terribly amiss, he decided to contact Cloud and his companions again to get to the bottom of it all. And so he did.

ACT IV:

Cloud and all of the Turks were laid out in Bugenhagen's room. Tifa and her friends were spread about the room, contemplating. They had not been able to figure out the cause of the strange wounds and were nowhere closer to figuring out what the mystery monster was than they were before.

Tifa was just about to yawn for the tenth time in that one minute when lightning flashed outside, or something like it.

Everyone started and looked around, and Sephiroth appeared, floating above them all.

"Sephiroth!" all the conscious people cried.

"Cloud!" Sephiroth screeched. But then he stopped and looked around, and realized Cloud was completely out of commission, and so were the Turks. "Well, hm." So he folded his arms and floated down until he was standing on the floor.

"You'd better not have anything to do with this!" Tifa said, putting her gloves on to fight Sephiroth.

Sephiroth sneered at her. "Quick to blame the Villain, are we? I came here because I can't shake this strange feeling...I thought you and Cloud had something to do with it."

"I guess it's spreading all over, whatever it is," RedXIII said, staring at the floor and deep in thought.

"Well, I guess if it's not you...," Sephiroth said, and then disappeared.

Tifa threw up her arms. "That's it! I am going to get to the bottom of this! Yuffie, Cid, you come with me. RedXIII, you and Barret stay here and watch over them."

Everyone agreed, and so Tifa, Yuffie, and Cid left Cosmo Canyon again.

ACT V:

"Get him, Yuffie! _GET HIM GOOD!"_ Tifa screamed. She was hurt badly and was having trouble moving, but she could still seeYuffie and her giant shuriken. Cid was completely gone by now, unconscious and useless in the grass beside Tifa.

Yuffie lunged and swung and cried out with a victorious feeling as her shuriken sunk into the green...flesh...or whatever it was.

The creature burbled and then began to sink. Yuffie waited only a moment before falling to her knees and holding her shredded arms against her chest. "What...what _is_ this thing...?"

Tifa crawled towards Yuffie and the creature. "I have no i- Yuffie!" she cried out, but she was too late. The thing they thought they had killed suddenly lunged part of its body forward and covered Yuffie's head. Yuffie fell onto her face, still.

Tifa had fallen back and stared at the green goo. Its gooey, green eyes were watching her now. Slowly, it advanced...sloooowlleeee...

Suddenly the creature squealed. Tifa opened her eyes (for she had shut them) and found Cloud's buster sword and Sephiroth's masamune imbedded in the creature. With one pitiful sound, it oozed into a liquid and spread as far as it could go, then stopped.

"Cloud!" Tifa said with relief, for indeed he was back and looking quite well.

"Tifa, I came as soon as I could." Cloud was wiping off his sword and moved to sit next to the K.O.ed Yuffie. "RedXIII and Bugenhagen think they figured it out. They're Slimes. They come from a different world entirely, somewhere strange... But we think we can beat them. Look, I caught this one on the way here." He held out his hand, and in the palm of it sat a green glob, which looked around with frightened eyes.

Tifa made a face. "...They're really that _small?"_

Cloud nodded and pocketed the creature. "It seems they don't stand up to heat very well, so we've been organizing materia parties to go around and clear-cut anywhere they might be hiding."

Tifa sighed. "Oh, thank goodness!"

Sephiroth was wiping off his blade as well. "Yes, well, we worked together this time..."

Tifa ignored him and went to Cloud and Yuffie. "Will she be all right?"

Cloud nodded, then shrugged. "I think so. Let's head back to Cosmo Canyon." He and Tifa stood up and were about to lift Yuffie and Cid when Sephiroth stood in their path.

"Not so fast." A smile spread slowly on his face. "Cloud, I have a present for you."

Cloud looked at Sephiroth with his usual stony face and said nothing.

"Come, now, a gift to repair the old times where we didn't get along."

Cloud turned away, but Sephiroth stopped him and held out his hand, where he dropped a little silver slime onto Cloud's head.

Cloud let out one long, anguished cry, and crumpled to the ground, never to rise again.

Tifa was very sad, but she knew there was no way to bring the dead back to life. So she flipped open her cellphone and called everyone else at Cosmo Canyon, including the Turks, and asked for reinforcements, which she got within a minute or two. Together, they all attacked Sephiroth until he was good and dead, and then they took Yuffie and Cid back to Cosmo Canyon until they were healed. There they all lived Happily, pretty much, until they dropped like flies, one by one, all except for RedXIII, who lived for a really, really, really long time.

The End


End file.
